Some stuff that still needs to be addressed.

[Lily.1935]

So I had to take some time to really think about the balance changes and really collect my thoughts because when i initially saw the changes I was disappointed. Those thoughts have since left my mind but that doesn't mean I still don't have issues with the necromancer as it is now. Baring the strange Scourge lifeforce bar bug the quality of scourge has made them actually a good option as a DPS in raids and fractals which is extremely good. But there are still plenty of places that could be improved on.

 

Spiteful Spirit

Starting here This trait honestly should not be called Spiteful spirit anymore since there really isn't anything spiteful about it. In fact it almost seems desperate than anything else. As for what this trait does it mimics what a large percentage of what death does now with an upside. Death magic has a lot of Condition Damage reduction and now spite has that too. I Personally feel this trait should be either renamed or reworked into something else entirely.

I'm of the opinion that Retaliation was a fun boon to use, but I understand why it was removed, but I don't want to strip that flavor from the game entirely. So what I personally would like to see is Perhaps Spiteful Spirit giving you and Allies Dark aura, perhaps even minions. It would be nice to see Dark aura used more often since its woefully under used.

 

Axe Auto attack

Fix the female attack animation! Seriously, I'm not going to stop bringing this up! Either change the skill to a skill chain or fix the animation, I really don't care which. Use the male animation! For real I shouldn't be swinging with the flat of the axe head...

 

Mark of Evasion

Necromancer has poor synergy with dodging and honestly It doesn't fit their play style at all. This is a hold over relic from 2012 and honestly it really needs to go. Something else like Bleed adjacent foes and grant regeneration to allies on heal or entering shroud. Call it blood rite or something, but this trait always bothered me as it was never something you could either build around or use effectively since Dodge is a far more valuable resource.

 

Boons on Scourge

This still bothers me to no end. We have Concentration built into use yet nothing to really take advantage of it. We have might, but that's not nearly enough. Even just regeneration and fury would be nice or perhaps the new Resolution boon. Something that a support scourge could latch onto and really build into. Its a sticking point of wasted potential for me.

 

I have other things I want to say but for now I just wanted to keep it simple as these are at the forefront of my mind at the moment.

[Dadnir.5038]

Spiteful Spirit: Confusion might do the job.

Mark of evasion: It's one of the better trait of the traitline in my opinion.

Boons on scourge: On top of condition conversion tools and feed from corruption, the necromancer have already access to might, regen, protection, resolve, swiftness and a little bit of fury. Whether they can only grant these boons to themselves or spread them to allies, I think it's enough to "justify" concentration.

 

Personally I'm more concerned about Lingering Curse unreasonnable amount of effects who are still exclusive to scepter wielding alone, Lich form few seconds of AA overpoweredness and the fact that necromancer's minions/minions traits design favor passive use of them.

 

That said, I do agree that Dark Aura deserve some availability on the necromancer, the lack of leap finishers being the main culprit of this lack of availability because the necromancer do have quite a lot of dark fields.

[Pooh.6897]

I'm a bit disappointed that they decided to keep the damage bonuses in reaper for strike damage only. If they were to open up Spite and make the damage bonuses apply to all damage, Spite might actually be useful for condi builds.

[Asum.4960]

I don't really want Spiteful Spirit renamed since it's a reference to an Iconic GW1 Elite Skill. The renaming of abilities has been pretty miss recently, very showing of few original devs being left (like Guards Symbol of Wrath being renamed to Resolve, even though the entire GS's theme is Wrath [Wrathful Strike, Whirling Wrath, Symbol of Wrath], with it's namesake not being due to the Retal it gave).

 

I like @Dadnir.5038 suggestion of adding confusion to it (aside from not fitting into the Power focused Spite line), since that's essentially what Spiteful Spirit was in GW1 (except AoE), with Necro being almost as much about punishing enemy actions as Mesmer was in GW1, it's always been disappointing to me that GW2's Necro get nothing of that with Confusion.

 

As for the Concentration on the Scourge Minor, those Minors imo needed a rework out of the gate. 

The base boon durations of Scourge such as Might on Abrasive Grit imo need a sizeable buff anyway and were always pitiful making Concentration especially low value regardless - but especially now with the Torment rework it's the perfect time to change the minor to an interesting effect, such as altering Fear in a way to make enemies cower in place instead on Scourge, synergising both with keeping them in Shades as well as facilitating extra Torment damage, rather than the current complete anti-synergy - just like Reaper got Chill on Fear to facilitate Reaper's melee nature. 

 

Blood Magic as a whole is just weird and outdated at this point (if it ever wasn't). It's a shame Revenant got all the Battle Scars Life Leech goodness that imo Blood Magic deserved. 

I'd like to see Spite move away from the Solo Might stacking role, becoming a more powerful Power Traitline for group content, and see Blood Magic become it's thematic sustain and buffing powerhouse (Blood is Power after all), with Boon support (primarily Might and Fury, but possibly even a Quickness option via a GM competing with Transfusion's Heal and Res Utility) and Battle Scars like leech.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Asum.4960

[Pooh.6897]

I have been wondering for a while now why Mesmer and revenant have traits and skills that necro actually should have.

[Asum.4960]

15 minutes ago, jiggle puff.9347 said:

I have been wondering for a while now why Mesmer and revenant have traits and skills that necro actually should have.

Yea, Necromancer suffered especially from Revenant's introduction I feel. 

 

Rather than outdated Necromancer design getting updates and reworks, all that design was put into Revenant instead, with the Corruption line and some of Mallyx essentially being improved Necro Curses and the Necro as master of conditions design, as well as the whole Battle Scar idea and much of Devastation (group buff, Might, actually good Life Leech) reading like a Blood Magic rework.

 

Similarly with Confusion, it seems like all the Devs remembered was GW1 Mesmer's Empathy Hex, while completely forgetting Necro's Spiteful Spirit, Insidious Parasite, Spoil Victor, Soul Leech and on and on in combination with things like Reckless Haste, Price of Failure, etc. - Necro was just as much if not more so about Tactical hexes than Mesmer. 

 

Then for GW2 they slapped this Shroud thing on Nec and called it a day theme and mechanic wise, and we never got proper Curse (although Scourge filled those shoes somewhat), Blood Magic or Minion gameplay.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Asum.4960

[Lily.1935]

15 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

Spiteful Spirit: Confusion might do the job.

Mark of evasion: It's one of the better trait of the traitline in my opinion.

Boons on scourge: On top of condition conversion tools and feed from corruption, the necromancer have already access to might, regen, protection, resolve, swiftness and a little bit of fury. Whether they can only grant these boons to themselves or spread them to allies, I think it's enough to "justify" concentration.

 

Personally I'm more concerned about Lingering Curse unreasonnable amount of effects who are still exclusive to scepter wielding alone, Lich form few seconds of AA overpoweredness and the fact that necromancer's minions/minions traits design favor passive use of them.

 

That said, I do agree that Dark Aura deserve some availability on the necromancer, the lack of leap finishers being the main culprit of this lack of availability because the necromancer do have quite a lot of dark fields.

I'd be happy if spiteful spirit applied confusion for sure, but it seems to be a boon Arena net aren't interested in giving to the necromancer. The retaliation of Spiteful spirit was flavorful before, it technically functioned in a similar manor but it wasn't great. Applying confusion and converting boons into extra confusion could work for that, which I'd be okay with.

 

For mark of Evasion I disagree. It does have some function but it goes against the necromancer's design which treats dodge like a vital resource that they can't squander. Necromancer doesn't have easy access vigor or other means to regenerate energy. And with that I'd much rather see it function in conjunction with what the class is designed to do.

 

Those boons don't really justify the boon duration in my opinion because the scourge can easily spam them on themselves to hit the new 30 second cap without the need for duration. Even without that I've been able to hit the boon cap with both reaper and core necromancer in my testing. As for sharing boons, Necromancer struggles greatly. They technically can give out ever boon, but thats highly conditional and the trait would be better served if it was healing power instead. Of course I'm not a fan of that change, I'd much prefer see scourge gain access to giving out other boons aside from Might and Stability and the random conversion boons they give.

 

I too have issues with Lich form. I dislike the skill entirely and would prefer it be redesigned entirely as a sort of skill that replaces your shroud and scale it based on that, but that's a bit more complex than what I wanted to discuss at the moment.

Lingering curse I feel has some issues. My concern with it though is that if you weaken it you would seriously harm Condi build's overall effectiveness. However if you role the condition duration into the base scepter you gain new problems with Parasitic contagion. Its a tough issue. I think Parasitic contagion would need to be reworked or go if lingering curse was changed. I think it would be fine if it just gave us 150 and devouring darkness as a Master trait competing with path of corruption or some other solution while its base duration was rolled into the scepter which would cut down on the necromancer's boon conversion a bit. Lingering curse is competing with Weakening shroud as it is and winning out. This might not be the best solution but I'm not really interested in losing so much of my DPS in PvE for PvP.

 

I've also discussed at length about minions so many times I don't want to get into it once again. Perhaps later, but I generally agree with you here.

[Anchoku.8142]

Spiteful Spirit could also be another boon corruption, boon steal, copy ally boons or consume allies' conditions

 

Yes, please fix female human axe animation and any other bugged animations.

 

Add minion destruction option for minions with skills on cool down or a kill-on-double-tap. Death Nova is too passive so I would like it if more than two minion types had a control over proc'ing it.

 

Change Carapace so it does not count in aggro calculations, though I would really like the whole aggro formula changed to be more skill-based.

 

Buff staff a little for PvE. Make another of the marks a finisher and make the AA finish more often or start with a finisher and make every 3rd claw one.

 

MH dagger should fully cleave a large hit box.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Anchoku.8142

[Obtena.7952]

I know I wouldn't be happy with Confusion as an available condi on Necro ... we got nothing to support that. I wouldn't even really want to see a damage condition on Spiteful Spirit, seeing that it's in the Spite line. I would prefer something more along the lines of its effect being applied when entering AND exiting shroud. 

 

I'm Ok with Mark of Evasion ... I think it's the kind of trait that we could actually use more of ... the 'Do this, get that' since they seem to work in Shroud as well. 

 

Concentration in Scourge is ... not that interesting. it's a pretty big nothing to me actually, even if I am trying to get specific boons. It's just one of those things that isn't well supported by the necro toolset. I would dump the concentration buff altogether and give a life-force gain multiplier to increase meaningful traitline choices outside of Soul Reaping.  

Edited May 16, 2021 by Obtena.7952

[Randin.5701]

On the staff front, I'd like to at least see the basic attack made into something more substantial--make it hit harder and move faster. Right now the auto attack just feels vestigial.

[Black Storm.6974]

There is also another problem that needs to be addressed.

There is a total imbalance now between Scourge and Reaper (also considering what ArenaNet usually says about the balance of Necromancer).

 

 

Scourge is now a far better damage dealer, it has higher and reliable DPS, he can even do that while ranged (Reaper instead have to risk melee all the time and use more dodges, GW2 used to reward melee with more damage and it was a good design).
Scourge do not lose any damage when taking damage from enemies (unlike Reaper which lose a lot of damage when hit in Shroud). 
As a Condition spec Scourge is also far more effective during the Exposed phase. Scourge also got great AoE damage and range.
I’m sure that, despite the ramp up time of conditions, Scourge Condition will easily out DPS Power Reaper in almost every scenario, even in Fractal.

One could think Scourge needs the enemies to stand still otherwise it loses damage, but that is even more true for Reaper.

 

Scourge Condition also got great sustain while just focusing on dealing damage (and not having to stay always melee also helps that sustain), he can even be healed by allies all the time. It doesn’t sacrifice any damage for that sustain.

 

Scourge also provides allies support, even passively while just trying to do as much damage as possible.

Edited May 17, 2021 by Black Storm.6974

[vanguard.8397]

can concur with reaper literally not that great when it comes to wvw mostly just used for npc killer love how some of the combat skills work not a big fan of it dealing very little when it come's to damage i mean it's literally called the reaper for peat sake it's suppose to do damage the harbinger of death's will itself aka (grenth) but why is stocked almost to the prime with mostly conditions why not add a massive scythe as an elite skill or that as an alternative what we got instead were summons conditions that the character shout's not gonna lie sounded pretty cool but as for the rest man was i disappointed i mean  seriously i felt as though somehow decided reaper needed a nerf at some point in the past and drastically changed the dps to an all time possible low for some reason or another have yet to read or hear about it but its as though the class went and decayed over somewhat the last few years not saying it wasn't a probably good idea but in all honestly i can see the somewhat clear disadvantage and also somewhat the advantages

[Asum.4960]

2 hours ago, Black Storm.6974 said:

There is also another problem that needs to be addressed.

There is a total imbalance now between Scourge and Reaper (also considering what ArenaNet usually says about the balance of Necromancer).

 

 

Scourge is now a far better damage dealer, it has higher and reliable DPS, he can even do that while ranged (Reaper instead have to risk melee all the time and use more dodges, GW2 used to reward melee with more damage and it was a good design).
Scourge do not lose any damage when taking damage from enemies (unlike Reaper which lose a lot of damage when hit in Shroud). 
As a Condition spec Scourge is also far more effective during the Exposed phase. Scourge also got great AoE damage and range.
I’m sure that, despite the ramp up time of conditions, Scourge Condition will easily out DPS Power Reaper in almost every scenario, even in Fractal.

One could think Scourge needs the enemies to stand still otherwise it loses damage, but that is even more true for Reaper.

 

Scourge Condition also got great sustain while just focusing on dealing damage (and not having to stay always melee also helps that sustain), he can even be healed by allies all the time. It doesn’t sacrifice any damage for that sustain.

 

Scourge also provides allies support, even passively while just trying to do as much damage as possible.

Not entirely sure why you feel the need to pit Reaper against Scourge, just because Scourge is a decent DPS now. 

Necro as a core just still has so many issues, especially when it comes to weapon abilities.

 

Reaper did make some strides "recently" with decent Utility changes in form of wells, but while condi Necro has been stuck on Scepter and nothing but Scepter since launch, and at least does decently now for once, power weapon sets really haven't been doing well either.

 

Between Spiteful Talisman, Awaken the Pain, Close to Death, Soul Barbs, Soul Eater, Cold Shoulder and especially the borderline ridiculously overloaded Death Perception and Reaper's Onslaught we are looking at like a collective >100% of multiplicative damage modifiers, and it still end's up resulting in lacklustre performance, especially out of Shroud, primarily because the performance of Necromancer Weapons is just that poor. 

 

Arena-Net (I hear hyphens are in now) just needs to stop being lazy with the easy choice of overloading Traits and adding cookie cutter damage modifiers to everything (esp just boosting Shroud further), and finally take a look at some of these base values. 

 

Axe and Dagger are just incredibly underwhelming Weapons, especially in PvE and GS isn't fun to use or performing well either. 

Outside of a quick Ghastly Claws or Nightfall + Grasping Darkness before a quick weapon Swap/Shroud, or boring Gravedigger spam <50%, there is just nothing on these weapons. 

Staff is just a WvW/PvP unblockable Mark poke'r.

Off-hands are essentially just stat sticks in PvE at this point, save for Torch on Scourge, not having a single skill worth using on them in PvE. 

Comparing other classes' off-hand skills like Whirling Axe or Whirling Defense to something like Locust Swarm is just laughable. 

 

If some of these weapon skills are updated to a baseline point of "worth pressing the button", Reaper's performance will increase with that to an acceptable point. 

 

As for the range vs melee, while I know what Anet is thinking there in theory in the design room, I don't really see too much point in that. 

Everywhere where performance matters everybody stacks melee anyway. 

Just like with Guards Longbow, or recent Scepter nerfs bc it's ranged, them being inferior just dooms those weapons to not being viable, rather than equalizing anything. For OW and such, who cares, anything goes, autoattacking, a ranger pet - Ranged vs Melee performance, for PvE, doesn't matter much. 

Additionally, it's not like Reaper doesn't still have benefits over Scourge in terms of self buffing, cleave and burst - but again, I don't see much value in pitting Necro against Necro, when it has been largely underperforming as a whole in PvE for years.

Edited May 17, 2021 by Asum.4960

[Dadnir.5038]

8 hours ago, Lily.1935 said:

I'd be happy if spiteful spirit applied confusion for sure, but it seems to be a boon Arena net aren't interested in giving to the necromancer. The retaliation of Spiteful spirit was flavorful before, it technically functioned in a similar manor but it wasn't great. Applying confusion and converting boons into extra confusion could work for that, which I'd be okay with.

 

For mark of Evasion I disagree. It does have some function but it goes against the necromancer's design which treats dodge like a vital resource that they can't squander. Necromancer doesn't have easy access vigor or other means to regenerate energy. And with that I'd much rather see it function in conjunction with what the class is designed to do.

 

Those boons don't really justify the boon duration in my opinion because the scourge can easily spam them on themselves to hit the new 30 second cap without the need for duration. Even without that I've been able to hit the boon cap with both reaper and core necromancer in my testing. As for sharing boons, Necromancer struggles greatly. They technically can give out ever boon, but thats highly conditional and the trait would be better served if it was healing power instead. Of course I'm not a fan of that change, I'd much prefer see scourge gain access to giving out other boons aside from Might and Stability and the random conversion boons they give.

 

I too have issues with Lich form. I dislike the skill entirely and would prefer it be redesigned entirely as a sort of skill that replaces your shroud and scale it based on that, but that's a bit more complex than what I wanted to discuss at the moment.

Lingering curse I feel has some issues. My concern with it though is that if you weaken it you would seriously harm Condi build's overall effectiveness. However if you role the condition duration into the base scepter you gain new problems with Parasitic contagion. Its a tough issue. I think Parasitic contagion would need to be reworked or go if lingering curse was changed. I think it would be fine if it just gave us 150 and devouring darkness as a Master trait competing with path of corruption or some other solution while its base duration was rolled into the scepter which would cut down on the necromancer's boon conversion a bit. Lingering curse is competing with Weakening shroud as it is and winning out. This might not be the best solution but I'm not really interested in losing so much of my DPS in PvE for PvP.

 

I've also discussed at length about minions so many times I don't want to get into it once again. Perhaps later, but I generally agree with you here.

 

1. Another thing they could do to Spiteful Spirit is to make it proc an effect similar to Druid's glyph of unity, afterall, Spellbreaker with Magebane tether prove that you don't need to have a skill within your kit to have a trait produce some tether with an effect.
2. We will agree to disagree on Mark of evasion 😉
3. Little bit of concentration always help, a minior trait that grant up to 225 in 2 different stats is a rare sight afterall. I think it's better not to poke into this nest and just enjoy the benefit however wasteful they might look like.
4. I wouldn't want another shroud as an elite skill. I'd prefer a simple skill personally.
5. My main grief witch Lingering Curse is the buff to condition damage that require to wield a scepter. Just make this buff gained whatever weapon you wield when you slot the trait. I mean it's a simple solution right?
6. And yeah, the minion subject have been discussed over and over.

[Nimon.7840]

23 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

Spiteful Spirit: Confusion might do the job.

Mark of evasion: It's one of the better trait of the traitline in my opinion.

Boons on scourge: On top of condition conversion tools and feed from corruption, the necromancer have already access to might, regen, protection, resolve, swiftness and a little bit of fury. Whether they can only grant these boons to themselves or spread them to allies, I think it's enough to "justify" concentration.

 

Personally I'm more concerned about Lingering Curse unreasonnable amount of effects who are still exclusive to scepter wielding alone, Lich form few seconds of AA overpoweredness and the fact that necromancer's minions/minions traits design favor passive use of them.

 

That said, I do agree that Dark Aura deserve some availability on the necromancer, the lack of leap finishers being the main culprit of this lack of availability because the necromancer do have quite a lot of dark fields.

Imo they should remove bloodbank.

Even though it's a nice trait that shines in some very niche play (for example good in wvw small "zergbusting" groups). It's not good to have a grandmaster trait only for very niche things.

 

I was always wondering why they introduced dark aura, but didn't do anything with it.

 

I'd love to see a trait that would interact with dark aura. Maybe something like: when you grant yourself dark aura, grant it to allies as well. allies that gain dark aura by using a combo finisher in your combo fields or dark aura you donate them heals/or does effect x.

 

(Maybe make this the only way to heal yourself actively while in shroud?, Cause right now, there's no option to allow that)

 

Didn't put that much thought I to it yet, so I'm not sure if more effects would be too overpowered.

 

[Nimon.7840]

21 hours ago, Asum.4960 said:

Axe and Dagger are just incredibly underwhelming Weapons, especially in PvE and GS isn't fun to use or performing well either. 

Outside of a Ghastly Claws or Nightfall + Grasping Darkness before a quick weapon Swap/Shroud, or boring Gravedigger spam <50%, there is just nothing on these weapons. 

Off-hands are essentially just stat sticks in PvE at this point, save for Torch on Scourge, not having a single skill worth using on them in PvE. 

Comparing other classes' off-hand skills like Whirling Axe or Whirling Defense to something like Locust Swarm is just laughable. 

 

If some of these weapon skills are updated to a baseline point of "worth pressing the button", Reaper's performance will increase with that to an acceptable point.  

 

Exactly that's the reason, why I want necro to get either a two handed weapon, or two one handed weapons for EoD.

 

I mean they did it for mirage, make a basically useless weapon overpowered af.

They could do the same to axe for example.

Dagger is more a utility weapon, so I'm fine, with it staying the way it is.

But axe is so bad in pve...

 

If you cannot manage life force effectively, and end up having to Autoattack with axe (raid reaper build), it's almost a reason to "GG" because it feels and is so bad.

 

You only take axe/war horn for two reasons on this build:

1. Damage and life force from axe 2

2. Cc from warhorn 4

(Ok, maybe precast wh5 while bosses phase or just before the encounter)

The rest of the skills is useless.

That's 4 out of 5 skills, that lower your DPS.

And 3 out of 5 skills are completely useless.

 

Who designed that? 

 

If you can't manage life force properly or the boss has no cc mechanic, it's most of the times better to not equip a second weapon set at all.

That says a lot of how bad this weapon set is.

 

Let's take a look on necros weapon choices:

1. Dagger mainhand - utility weapon

2. Staff - utility weapon

3. Axe - ? (Pvp weapon)

4. Scepter - condi DPS weapon

5. Focus - utility/ pvp weapon

6. Dagger offhand - utility/wvw weapon, DPS weapon for condi builds, apart from scourge

7. Torch - condi DPS weapon

8. Great sword - power DPS weapon (btw in pvp modes it's a utility weapon, because it's way to slow/ telegraphed)

 

Back to the EoD weapon/s.

If it's a single hand weapon, it has to be a mainhand condi weapon. To compete with scepter and maybe get a dual weapon setup for condi builds.

Or it has to be 5 skills to deal power damage.

 

There's only one other way I wouldn't be insanely bored, if I had to further stick to my scepter:

A profession mechanic that alters weapon skills for example.

So I don't have to stick to the same boring scepter auto attack +3+2 that I had to play for years now, if I wanted to play condi necro.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Nimon.7840

[Anchoku.8142]

A second condition damage weapon would be great. It may not be an easy task, though. So much of Necro condi dps is focused on bleeds and scepter that the core profession and Curses may need extensive changes. Think about how reliant condition dps is on one trait and one weapon's auto attack. Poison, burning, confusion and terror are significant but bleeding is by far the largest contributor.

 

That suggests another condi dps weapon would have to be main hand and compete directly with scepter while not adding dps to the overall build. Scepter is also a medium range weapon and Arenanet would have to think hard about whether to give a long range condi weapon or a short range condi melee.

 

So, what happens to Lingering Curse? Would Arenanet force the player to choose between it and another grandmaster as a trade between weapons?

Edited May 21, 2021 by Anchoku.8142
Spelling (auto-correct) error

[KrHome.1920]

Spiteful Spirit is overnerfed.

Mechanically the trait is fine. Give it back its 2/4 corrupts and it's great.

 

Mark of Evasion is great.

What sucks is the nerf to 1 bleed, so you can't trigger Lesser Vamp Signet in the competitive modes. That would be a great synergy and transform Blood Magic to a traitline I would actually use.

 

Scourge and boons.

Scourge has Feed from Corruption and tons of Might generation.

 

Edited May 17, 2021 by KrHome.1920

[Lily.1935]

4 hours ago, KrHome.1920 said:

Spiteful Spirit is overnerfed.

Mechanically the trait is fine. Give it back its 2/4 corrupts and it's great.

 

Mark of Evasion is great.

What sucks is the nerf to 1 bleed, so you can't trigger Lesser Vamp Signet in the competitive modes. That would be a great synergy and transform Blood Magic to a traitline I would actually use.

 

Scourge and boons.

Scourge has Feed from Corruption and tons of Might generation.

 

Its an evasion trait on a profession that does not have any other evasion synergies. Its the lone isolated trait that does this. This trait would be better served if its trigger was on some other action like using your heal or on entering or exiting shroud. At least this way it COULD have a stronger effect and offer some more reliable supportive utility which the necromancer desperately needs.

Its a poorly designed trait and without access to other means to really benefit its just a waste of space that strips other more positive potential synergies.
Are you seriously going to spend one of the necromancer's most valuable resources for a stack of bleed and regeneration for a short duration? It builds into nothing in the specialization and synergies poorly and has some incidental useful utility but that's not enough to say its great. Its not even good when we begin to look inside necromancer's own kit. Its fine, at best. But when we look at the other professions with dodge synergy they have a lot more built into that design and they have tones of interlocking pieces, we do not. Mark of Evasion is a relic from a bygone era of GW2 where every profession was expected to have some parody of abilities. Necromancer functions in its defenses primarily with its shroud, life stealing, barrier and and condition conversion/sending. We do not synergies with dodge and toying with this idea that we could is antithetical to what arena net have designed thus far. IF arena net wanted to build vigor or endurance regeneration into blood magic that would be one thing, then I could see a justification for keeping it, but there is no good reason to do that.

 

I've actually built a Might Scourge. In order to cap a group of 5 people on their might you have to build exclusively toward that goal and sacrifice every other aspect of your build to do so. And to be worse at it than every other profession that already does that AND provides more boons. Feed From corruption is not good enough justification for the Consecration especially when we consider Mirage has a similar trait in Dune cloak which steals boons in a similar manor and yet Mirage has no boon duration or concentration attached to it.

Mechanically, Spiteful spirit doesn't function like its namesake.

[Asum.4960]

13 minutes ago, Lily.1935 said:

I've actually built a Might Scourge. In order to cap a group of 5 people on their might you have to build exclusively toward that goal and sacrifice every other aspect of your build to do so. And to be worse at it than every other profession that already does that AND provides more boons. Feed From corruption is not good enough justification for the Consecration especially when we consider Mirage has a similar trait in Dune cloak which steals boons in a similar manor and yet Mirage has no boon duration or concentration attached to it.

Mechanically, Spiteful spirit doesn't function like its namesake.

Yea, even if we considered Scourge's boon support viable and functional, which it is not, Abrasive Grit's duration (the might from which really is the main and only reliable boons it's provides, it's not like things like running around wildly through your team with Trail of Anguish is in any way compareable to something like Stand your Ground in useability, and is not how the skill is generally used - rather than a personal Stunbreak), the passive Concentration from Sand Sage only adds 1 pitiful second of Might duration to that, with all 3 Shades out. 

 

While the Expertise is nice (and could easily be rolled into a reworked Trait), a Minor dedicated to essentially increasing the Might duration of one optional Trait in Scourge from 6 seconds to 7 seconds is laughable. 

Feed From Corruption really isn't a justification either, since it also gains value through to amount of application, not their individual durations, which tend to be extremely short too. 

The only place where Feed from Corruption has value is in PvP/WvW due to three reasons, 1. everything else (Sand Savant, Demonic Lore) has been nerfed to death there and was used over it before, 2. the boon spam power creep and 3. only via dedicating most of the build to corruption - not boon duration - especially since that Concentration Minor is even further nerfed in PvP and WvW.

 

17 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

Little bit of concentration always help, a minior trait that grant up to 225 in 2 different stats is a rare sight afterall. I think it's better not to poke into this nest and just enjoy the benefit however wasteful they might look like.

 

Imbued Haste for example gives 750 attributes on a Minor, all of which are useful and synergising with the Profession, other's like Aeromancer's Training offer not only more stats (300) in a useful attribute, but also a powerful other effect such as CD reductions.

 

Plus the Boon Giving Traits on Scourge, mainly Abrasive Grit and Feed from Corruption, are as mentioned primarily used in PvP scenarios only, where not only Sand Sage is weaker, but also Shades have a larger Cool Down and lower durations, on top of rarely if ever having access to Alacrity in those modes, so the Trait is more like a 45-90 extra Concentration with maybe one to maximum two Shades out at a time, which for 6 seconds Might from Abrasive Grit or 5 seconds of Stability, 3 Seconds of Quickness etc. from feed From Corruption does just about nothing. 

 

Even in the worst case scenario of "poking the nest" of Scourge just flat out losing that free concentration without any compensation, it wouldn't make any realistic difference in any game mode or build. 

That's the definition of a bad/useless Trait.